Mesa/Boogie 750 Big Block Head

First off, i bought this head about two years ago. i Had purchased an Ampeg svt pro4 9 months earlier but after all that time could not dial in any good tone. Had my peavey amp stolen and rushed into a purchase just for a name, figured since the pro 4 had so many dials buttons and flashy things it would be impossible not to find usable tone.....wrong! i have been using a Warwick Thumb 5 neck thru for about 4 years, it seams that ampeg brings out highs and mids but the extremely solid wood of my bass already does that so all i got was unrelenting ching. I walked into a music store and decided to give Mesa a shot... at first it was excellent! i didn't have to touch a damn thing. straight to good tone. i finally heard my B string's low growl, which was the reason i liked Warwick basses in the first place. i decided to go for it. traded in the turd that was Ampeg and about $700 [ouch!!!!] took it home and thought i was set for life. three days later we hit the studio and i was stoked to use the direct out, but as luck would have it all that came out of monitors was electric buzz. the ground lift didn't do anything so i plugged right into their crappy DI and gave them complete control over my tone.
At the time i was running out of one ampeg bt 4x10 and the tone was great, well my bandmates and I decided to add another guitarist. After adding one which sounded awesome on the guitarist end but decided i must add another cabinet. Now i am running 2 Goliath 3 4x19's at 8 ohms and the first few things i noticed is 1) no matter what volume to gain ratio, there is a incredible annoying hiss( I've unplugged everything in my rack and i own an expensive furman power conditioner) 2) The balls are completely gone from the amp, nothing but fart coming from the low B and 3] the chingy high end is back and better than ever, even changed tubes.

Lesson is-Try every amp as much as you can and with the basses you have/or plan to get, same with speaker cabinet arrangements you plan on having. Expensive is this lesson if you are a tone freak like i am.

Oh and one more thing.....Thank you Mesa for Taking $500 off the retail price 6 months after i bought your big block 750, So now the lesson is more expensive when i buy a real power amp.

I am using a Warwick Thumb 5, standard Mec pickups

I play Metal almost entirely but have played folk and rock for various artists

and like above this amp is noizy as hell. i cant even use the direct out for live situations and for the overdrive pedal.... hmmmm! let's think, had to purchase that after the fact [$100] just to check out what it does exactly, but overdrive isn't really for me i guess because alot of people like what it does on the Big Block but i thought it didn't fit in any situation what so ever...Sounded like $#@!. and after using it a couple of times the pedal locked something in the back so now when i plug it in it goes instantly into tuner mute and won't switch out. Worthless
Should up the resale value though!

Well as you can tell i would depend on it like a bunch of meth heads

Don't even want to even find out. but i love this site, with all the bad costumer support reviews on the SWR SM 900, i think i will skip that sit down test

Overall It's gonna be low, maybe it was a lemon but i doubt it. Still a crap ton better than the Ampeg but all the tonal reasons i believe are do to my bass not getting along with the above mentioned, but If you want an amp for under a thousand bucks and like the gritty tone of this amp then it is for you.. and good luck! Oh and mine is for sale....Any takers?

Going to test out a Aguilar DB 750 in the morning so maybe that will be the cure for my tone cancer

It's all been stated here-but you have to wake up and SMELL THE COFFEE-

Guys for gigging you can't beat a dependable amp with good socket connections and refinforced board connects.

Go for the Big Block Titan V12!!!!

I was at the shop in LA and I saw the metal pedal board for changing channels or going into SOLO Mode!

THIS IS IT if you are a pro in a club situation. One great INVESTMENT. Sadly this 750 has 2 blocks but only one channel.

I am sure it is good clean power to color anyway you want with whatever effects you experiment with...

Supposedly very good-but a good amp man is a necessity to double check sockets and corossion which happens with ALL AMPS.

Small botique shop with limited contact unless you live in LA, like I do....

But the staff are players and they want to do right-so email and telephone probably would be excellent.

If you're interested in knobs and faders, and sliders and graphic eq's, and compressors and limiters, and bells and whistles, and all that garbage that colors your sound, this amp might not be the one for you.

This amp is PURE meat and potatoes, but even better, it's a meat and potatoes amp that can give you all of the tone you could ever need through very minute tweaks of just a few simple and easy to understand knobs.

1st, you have your gain knob... 2 o'clock is usually about right for maximum headroom and just a breath of growl, but anywhere between 12 and 2 can affect your tone quite a bit. Next, you got your bass and treble knobs... easy stuff. Then you have a passive midrange knob... all the way down gives a "scooped" sound, and all the way up lets you honk like a goose. Then you have an active midrange knob with a frequency knob that lets you dial in or out more specific frequency ranges... this is about as complex as the amp gets, but it is definitely nice to have. Finally, you have an overdrive knob for the overdrive channel... up is mean, down is kinda clean... so whether you want to sound like you're gargling with vinegar or gravel is where you want to set that.

Comes with a foot switch for muting and changing channels... big plus... and it has all the outputs you'll ever need.

It looks frickin sexay too. *drool*

I use a Lakland USA Joe Osborn 5-string and a Lakland USA 55-94... plus a few others. Sure, the tone of those basses help, but all I gotta say is this...

Butter...

Organic Butter...

750 lbs. of organically engineered butter, sprinkled with cayenne pepper dropped directly in the center of your chest when this puppy is turned up nice and driven through a good cab or two.

I have to be honest here... I bought one of the first ones made, and because of that, all the problems weren't ironed out. There was some weird thing going on with the effects loop I guess, and it caused the amp to suddenly drop volume.

This isn't going to really touch the rating in this category, however, because Mesa fixed the problem quickly and easily and two years later, I'm still problem free.

From what I understand, the fix was made before a whole lot of these amps hit the market, so if you get one now you will not have this problem.

All I have to say is that these guys rule.

I sent my amp in for a minor fix and they did some sweet upgrades to make it "current" and they really went through the whole thing with a fine-toothed comb.

All bugs were ironed out, and the amp came back sounding better than ever.

I have been playing for about 20 years, and have played a lot of stuff... I have also worked in the music industry on the manufacturing, retail, and marketing sides of the business, so I have had an opportunity to play a lot of gear.

This puppy really changed my outlook on playing, and I have had nothing but compliments in regards to it's sound... I am very happy with the purchase.

I would definitely buy this amp again, but would actually probably buy a Mesa 400+ instead, but ONLY because that amp has been my dream amp for like 20 years.

Tone lots of it and it has all you need for a big rig with plenty of head room

I have a traben le and a esp both sound great with it i run a bp200 through the effecs jack and it souns fine i only use it for corus the overdrive is a bit distorted but otherwise ok

ha ha ah ah ahahah ahah a


broke after a month di pot was no good and the amp gets way hot I pu tin a 6 space case all by its self I have A friend That had one roll smoke out while playing on stage compleat meltdown at normal loads

One word BAD BAD BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Told me SInce I did NOt BUy Amp From AUthorized Dealer I was SOL Well You need To pick A company That Will service there customers not through loopholes at them I wont EVER BUY ANOTHER MESA BOOGIE AMP AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not to mentin I asked for a fix for the 2 pole speakon and they sent me 2 speakons to change on my cable insted of replacing the ones on the amp

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY ALL OF THERE GEAR BREAKES AND THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOU JUST THEMSELFS

DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY

All the features I'll ever need.

Had a professonal bass player ( a monster player! ) friend visiting and testing my new 750 BB. Compared it with my friend's SWR 750 X and the 750 BB was much warmer-sounding than the SWR, which was sounding quite dry and sterile. The BB was like breathing and living compared to the SWR. My cabinet is Ampeg 4 x 10 HLF and it is very good combination with the BB. We tested the amps with a Ken Smith 5-string and a Fender Victor Bailey signature jazz bass. Well, The BB definitely is a great amp and I'm sure happy with the sounds I get.

I have only had it for about 2 months, so far so good.

I'm a plug in and play- kind of player and The BB is just righ for me. Set the controls at 12 o'clock and you have a really good sound, simple as that. It's expensive but worth the money.

I'm an old school player, the less knobs, the better! After reading a few reviews on the 750 BB I wanted to try one out, but was in no hurry. When the '73 Bassman 100 I'd been using for years started to show signs of needing some serious work, I put the 750 in the top of my check out list.

I have a very heavy picking hand, and most new amps tend to distort quickly. That is why I've been using old Bassman heads. The all tube pre amp in the 750 is easily tempered, and the power stage is more than enough to set for "STUN".

The amp has all I'll ever need. I've quit using effects, other than the sweet distortion that the 750 provides.

I play in a cover band, a few weekend a month, and if anyone had told me I'd shell out the cash for an amp like this I'd have laughed in their face, knowing there was another Bassman in a pawn shop somewhere...

I guess I was wrong..

Playing with the midrange controls opened up a whole new world!

UPDATE 8/20/08:
Addendum to my first post in 2005.. This amp ROCKS!

I play 3 Basses:

A 1992 Fender PBass 1958 Reissue made in Japan
A Gibson Victory Artist tuned BEAD
A recent Fender 1953 PBass reissue crafted in Japan

The 750 rocks with all of them! The band I'm in has a varried song list, from the 60's to now, and the 750 responds to dynamics well. Whatever I expect to hear while changing styles, I do.

I have it matched with a MB 4X10 cab, which I purchaced when I was using the Bassman 100. I was getting tired of hauling the Sunn 215BH cab I was using. I guess that was a little forshadowing..

The distortion is one step above stellar! Having played guitar as well, The ability to dial in a completely different distortion sound available at the click of a switch, is truely lovely! The distortion stage in the amp allows the adjusting of a different gain load, and master volume for the distortion sound. That's a BIG +

For me, a good amp is one that requires some dial in, and responds to the signal being fed to it.

The 750 does that, in spades!

UPDATE:
As I've creased the edges of learning the amp's ability, I have yet to be disappointed!

So far, so good.

UPDATE:
No problems yet :-)

I've been a Bass Player for almost 30 years.. I've had a few OMG moments:

Buying my first Rickenbacker 4001, and 5 more after it..
Cracking the Geddy Lee code
Learning a P Bass has the edge of a 4001, and a bit more growl.
Having compliments on my playing/ tone from many local players.
and
Taking it to the next level with my 750 BB!

It cost a bundle, but if it ever fails me, I know who signed off on that part of the amp ;-)

UPDATE:
I started playing a super cheap Upright Bass a year ago.. found an old Barcus Berry Drum pickup I'd had for years and rubber banded it to the bridge of the UB. I started using the UB live for 10 tunes out of our 65 tune night.. Plugged it into the BB750, turned the mids down slightly, and it sounded great!

I've also made the turn to a Jazz Bass, and the BB750 REALLY brings it to life! Again, the dynamic capability the amp has is awesome!